2009 Volkswagen GTI: jerking or lurching

Filed Sep 22, 2015 · Transmission · 52,500 miles · NY

Tl* the contact owns a 2009 volkswagen gti. While driving 15 MPH and coming to a stop, the vehicle jerked forward without warning and the contact heard a loud noise coming from the transmission. After coming to a stop, the vehicle was not able to move and the gear selector lights were illuminated. The vehicle was shut off and restarted. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 52,500.

Filed Nov 23, 2009 · Transmission · 17,000 miles · FL

Experiencing several safety issues with vw dsg transmission in my 2009 gti. First, shifting into park. When shifting from either reverse or drive into park on a hill, vehicle rolls 3 feet and then hits a hard "stop". Second, very hard downshifting/engine braking in automatic mode when slowing down. This happens at 20 MPH and then again at 10 MPH. If you are applying the brakes when this engine braking happens it is impossible to stop at a desired point. You can be smoothly applying the brake and then when you slow to 20 MPH the engine braking drastically slows the vehicle even more. It's like shifting into a lower gear at too high a speed while simultaneously applying the brakes. Very dangerous! Third, lurch/surge when starting on a hill. When backing out of a spot on a hill or starting forward on a hill having just put the vehicle in drive the engine revs for 3 seconds as if it is not in gear and then lurches suddenly forward.

Filed Nov 6, 2009 · Transmission · 3,000 miles · IL

I purchased the car in the beginning of july 2009, noticed weird shifting but figured it was part of car break in process. Now I notice it happen almost daily. The car shifts harshly during acceleration and deceleration. It jerks forward a lot during bumper to bumper traffic. Lately the car will hesitate when going from complete stop to forward then "buck" forward.

Filed Aug 24, 2009 · Transmission · IA

The mechatronic unit in my dsg transmission was found to be defective. It would cause the car to shudder and jerk back and forth when starting from a dead stop. It would also do the same thing while in reverse.

Filed Jul 17, 2009 · Transmission · 5,000 miles · VA

I bought my 2009 vw gti in january of this year (6 months ago). It now has 5100 miles. At about 2500 miles, the dsg automatic transmission started slipping out of gear at seemingly random times. It only happened a couple of times before my 3000 mile checkup. At that time, vw could not replicate the problem and told me that the car was "operating within specifications." in the last couple of weeks the problem has become a lot more frequent -- happening several times per day at seemingly random times (in parking lots and on the jersey turnpike). When it happens, it acts like I am holding in the clutch on an automatic (no gears at all) and the prindl light on the dashboard flashes. Once, the shift lever also froze and I could not shift out of drive. The only way to get back into gear is to restart the car - and vw tells me that this also resets the fault indicator so that they can diagnose the problem. This problem causes a safety hazard -- losing all power to the engine when I am trying to merge into traffic or in a crowded place where I cannot coast to a safe place to stop and restart the car is extremely dangerous. The general shifting of the car in low gears is also somewhat jerky, but this problem pales in comparison to the complete loss of power at random times.

Filed Jul 17, 2009 · Transmission · 7,000 miles · VA

Purchased 2009 vw gti with dsg transmission in october 2008. Transmission seemed fine until about 7000 miles. Dsg started to have jerky/hard shifts in lower gears 1/2/3 and below 10mph would have surging during light acceleration or coasting to stop. From stopped position would also jerk forward with only a slight throttle input. Problems seems to be only after the car has been driven15-20 minutes and gets hot. When the car is cold it drives normal. Symptoms also seem worse during bumper to bumper traffic when more demand on lower gears and more heat. There is sometimes a noticeable clunking sound when dsg is down shifting from 2-1 and sometimes after the car has come to a stop and need to creep forward (still in 1st gear) will get the clunking sound and like the car almost stalls. All these symptoms happen in either d/s/m mode but reverse gear has no problems. Have asked the vw dealer where I bought the car about this problem and they say they can not reproduce the symptoms.

Filed Jul 7, 2009 · Transmission · MO

I purchased my 2009 vw gti in august of 2008 and have been using it as my daily driver since its purchase. Not knowing the technicalities and specifications of the dsg transmission I drove the car as usual until after having the car for 2 or 3 months when I went to start the car the prnds was flashing in the dash and the key would not turn to unlock (I could attempt to start it though) nor would it remove from the ignition. After 3 failed attempts to start it I got out of the car and returned an hour later to start it and it worked without any problems. I made an appointment with my dealer and they "fixed the issue" my replacing a magnetic sensor in the triptronic unit. I drove the car as usual for a few months and everything was fine (or so I thought). I had a friend ride with me who owns another vw with a dsg transmission and he commented on how bad the shifts were and how it rode bad, so I began to investigate the issues (this being the only dsg car I have driven I did not know my car was driving bad). Turns out the car had a faulty mechatronic unit that was causing my car to have rough shifts, "lurching" motions while in 1st gear and reverse, and then would feel as though the car was going to stall and cut out. I had become accustomed to driving the car as such and had to take extra precautions when parallel parking so my car wouldn't "lurch" and hit the car on either side while parallel parking. You can read about multiple other people with the same problem with a late model vw gti (particularly 2008 and 2009) on a vw enthusiast forum: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zeroforum?id=988.